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Interview of Turkish Poet Serkan Engin in Nepal

(Interview
of Serkan Engin performed by Nepalese poet Pramod Dhital who is the
editor of the Nepal based international online literal portal SHABDA
SHIKHA)

–
Serkan
Engin, Poet

A
socialist Laz-Turk poet and author Serkan Engin was born in 1975 in
Izmit, Turkey.His poems and articles on poetry theory have appeared
in more than fifty literary journals in Turkey. In 2004, he published
a poem manifesto, entitled Imagist Socialist Poetry. He has been
trying to launch a new movement in Turkish poetry and to this end has
published numerous articles about literary theory.

His
poems and articles on poetry theory have been published in English in
many international literary journals all over the world like The
Tower Journal, Poetry’z Own, Belleville Park Pages, Far Enough
East, Spilt Infinitive Lit Magazine, Empty Mirror, The Writer’s
Drawer, Poetry Super Highway, Miracle E-zine, Industry Night Lit
Magazine, Open Road Review, Shot Glass Journal, The Criterion and
Mediterranean Poetry. Some of his poems appeared in Japanese in the
leading Japanese philosophy and poetry journal Shi to Shisou.

Also
his poems and articles on poetry theory have been translated into
Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Persian and
Bengali.Some of his poems in English have been accepted to
international thematic poetry anthologies.

He
is the first Turkish poet in history who has written a poem on
Armenian Genocide. His poem named “Barbarian and Ms Daisy” which
has been dedicated to the victims of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek
genocides has been accepted to the Armenian Poetry Project in 2015.

His
political articles on Islam and also Armenian, Assyrian, Greek
genocides have been published in many countries in many languages
including Sweden, USA, Greece, India, France, Argentina, Netherland,
Armenia, Indonesia and Finland.

Pramod
Dhital: Let’s
start our conversation from your daily activities. In which affairs
are you busy now a days ?

Serkan
Engin: I am working as a freelance
translator from English to Turkish and fromTurkish to English in
Turkey for translation officess. Also I am translating literary
books, I have recently translated narration book of Turkish author
Omer Gok living in USA from Turkish to English named “Prolog”. It
is due to be published in USA. And I continue to write poems and
articles on poetry theory, as well as political articles on Islam as
an Ex-Muslim author and articles on Armenian, Greek, Assyrian
genocides of my Turkish ancestors.

Pramod
Dhital: What
compels you to write ?

Serkan
Engin: Pain
and anger. Pain and anger compel me to write, not only mine, also all
pain and anger of the oppressed humans of the world. I am trying to
be voice of all oppressed, despised, ignored, exploited, beaten,
insulted, neglected, abused, molested humans in the world on poetry
platform as I had mentioned in my essay on my own poetry ethics which
can be considered as an international poetry manifesto named “Revenge
of the Imagist Socialist Poetry”. (see: http://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/features/literature/revenge-of-the-imagist-socialist-poetry.html )

Pramod
Dhital: Would
you describe something what is your background of coming to literay
field ?

Serkan
Engin: First, I had started to write to
cure my pain, they I had transformed to be a poet and author which
was trying to cure the pain of all suffering humans.

Pramod
Dhital: What
is your purpose of writing literature ?

Serkan
Engin: As
I had metioned in my short essay about my poetry struggle named
“Imagist Socialist Poetry: A Short Guide”:I
am an imagist socialist poet. That means I support poetry which has
imagist form and socialist content. As a socialist poet, my mission
is to be the voice of the worker and the working classes, and the
voice of all those who are despised, ignored and excluded from
society. As socialist poets, we have to create awareness through our
poems about the alienation caused by capitalism. I have therefore
written poems about the suffering of child laborers, the tragedy of
homosexuals, the pain of street kids, and the sadness of prostitutes,
among others.

Pramod
Dhital: Can
literature become the weapon of social transformation ?

Serkan
Engin:Of
course not only alone, but it can/will make contribution in this
social transformation by rasing the awareness and the aesthetic and
ethical perception ability of the readers. You can find more about
details of my view on this issue in my article on poetry theory named
“Imagist Socialist Poetry and Artistic Reality.”

Pramod
Dhital: In
your view,what is and should be the relation between creation and
creator ?

Serkan
Engin: I
never write any poem, essay or article, they make me write
themselves.

Pramod
Dhital: From
the perspective of ideology, what type of literary wing or movement
is dominant in your country now?

Serkan
Engin: In my country, Turkey, the
postmodern poetry is dominant and as an imagist socialist poet, I
have a struggle against his poetry movement by my critical articles.

Pramod
Dhital: What
is poetry for you?

Serkan
Engin: I am God of Poetry and at the same
time slave of it.

Pramod
Dhital: What
type of books do you like to read and who are your favourite writers
?

Serkan
Engin: Mostly
I like to read books about recent history and philosophy. My favorite
writers/poets areFriedrich
Nietzsche, Attila Jozsef and Nikola Vaptsarov.

Pramod
Dhital: What
are you reading and writing now a days?

Serkan
Engin: Nowadays, I am accumulating to
write. A real author is in writing process 24/7. Writing is a
complicated process, but we can divide it into two main stage: 1-
Accumulatin to write. 2- Action moment of writing. The first stage is
the most important part of being/living (as) an author. Writing is
the existence way of a real author/poet in in ontological manner. We
create ourselves by writing and this is not a “part-time” job,
but a 24/7 living style.

Pramod
Dhital: Are
you agree with the saying that literary writing is also a kind of
politics ?

Serkan
Engin: Of course. In fact, all actions of
all humans are political even they act non-political, because you
cannot escape from politics in any part of your life. And my poetry
struggle, imagist socialist poetry, has a tough political backbone.

Pramod
Dhital: What
are the burning issues and problems for writing in your country ?

Serkan
Engin: You can easy be sent to jail in
Turkey or be murdered because of writing against Islam or writing the
truth on Armenian, Assyrian, Greek genocides of your Turkish
ancestors.

Pramod
Dhital: What
is the process of taking birth of poem within you ?

Serkan
Engin: I accumulate to write and then the
Poetry orders me to write itself.

Pramod
Dhital: How
is the situation of socialist cultural and literary movement in your
country ?

Serkan
Engin: It has a big bacround in the past,
but nowadays, as I said before, postmodern poetry is dominant in
Turkey.

Pramod
Dhital: Whose
names would you like to take as your favourite old and new writers ?

Serkan
Engin: I want to mention Turan Dursun
first, the biggest Ex-Muslim author in Turkey who had been murdered
by Islamist terrorist because of his book criticising Islam. Also I
want to mention two youn Turkish poets named Zafer Ekin Karabay and
Ozge Dirik who had committed suicide when they were still very young
and couldn’t see their published books even they were good poets
because of the vampire publishing system in Turkey requesting money
from even the good poets for publishing their books.

Pramod
Dhital: What
are the weakness and strongness of new writers in your view ?

Serkan
Engin: Not reading enough about the
literary/art theories and thinking on them.

Pramod
Dhital: What
message would you like to give to our Nepalese
writers ?

Serkan
Engin: I can suggest them and also all of
us to walk through our own path on the art platform which is never
passed before in the art history.

Pramod
Dhital: What
is your philosophy of life ?

Serkan
Engin: Creating myself step by step by my
own way.

Pramod
Dhital: What
is the greatest lesson which you got from your life experience?

Serkan
Engin: Making kids happy is the most
important thing in the life. One single smile of a kid is more
important than all art pieces, all ideologies, money, awards,
success, etc. I want a gravestone in the form of a clown sculpture
because of being able to make kids smile after my death.

Socialist Laz-Turk poet and author Serkan Engin was born in 1975 in
Izmit, Turkey.

His
poems and articles on poetry theory have appeared in more than fifty
literary journals in Turkey. In 2004, he published a poem manifesto,
entitled Imagist Socialist Poetry. He has been trying to launch a new
movement in Turkish poetry and to this end has published numerous
articles about literary theory.

His
poems and articles on poetry theory have been published in English in
many international literary journals all over the world like The
Tower Journal, Poetry'z Own, Belleville Park Pages, Far Enough East,
Spilt Infinitive Lit Magazine, Empty Mirror, The Writer’s Drawer,
Poetry Super Highway, Miracle E-zine, Industry Night Lit Magazine,
Open Road Review, Shot Glass Journal, The Criterion and Mediterranean
Poetry. Some of his poems appeared in Japanese in the leading
Japanese philosophy and poetry journal Shi to Shisou. Also his poems
and articles on poetry theory have been translated into Italian, Spanish,
Swedish, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Persian, Bengali, Kurdish, Zazaki, Romaic and Lazish.

Some of his poems
in English have been accepted to international thematic poetry anthologies.

He is the first Turkish poet in history who has written a poem on Armenian Genocide. His poem named "Barbarian and Ms Daisy" which has been dedicated to the victims of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides has been accepted to the Armenian Poetry Project in 2015.

His
political articles on Islam and also Armenian, Assyrian, Greek
genocides have been published in many countries in many languages including Sweden, USA, Greece, India, France, Argentina, Netherland, Armenia,
Indonesia and Finland.